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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784870">The Revitalized Crusade</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic'>Webtrinsic</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Herbert West - Reanimator - H. P. Lovecraft, Re-Animator (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Coming back to life is disorienting, Dan is smitten, Falling In Love, Flirting, Gay Herbert West (Re-Animator), Herbert has feelings, Herbert kills a bunch of ppl, Hurt Daniel Cain, Hurt Herbert West, Hurt/Comfort, Indiana Jones AU, Inspired by Indiana Jones, Kidnapping, M/M, Murder, Poor Daniel Cain, Possibly OOC, Protective Daniel Cain, Protective Herbert West, Reagent, Sexual Tension, Shock, Stabbing, Waterboarding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 01:07:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,996</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27784870</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Webtrinsic/pseuds/Webtrinsic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Whip wielding archeologist Daniel Cain finds the most precious thing of all, not in an artifact but rather in a mad scientist on the run from a gang run by a pompous plagiarist who wanted the admittedly attractive scientist's cure for death.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Daniel Cain/Herbert West</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Revitalized Crusade</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this didn't turn out exactly how i wanted it, but i only wrote this to get the image of dan dressed as indiana jones out of my head but regardless i hope you enjoy it</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I wasn’t aware that archeologists had nemesis or at the very least utilized a whip,” the scientist’s voice is shuddering as they are forced to run from the red and black clad men chasing them throughout the streets of Venice.</p><p>Dan can only huff, rivaling, “And you’re a poor excuse for a doctor,”</p><p>“Doctor’s do provide resuscitations. I’m simply working on a way that’s a hundred percent successful,”</p><p>That’s what drives a laugh out of Doctor Cain, the action nearly making him stumble before his eyes lock onto what hopefully is a shortcut. Grabbing the smaller man’s hand and using his longer legs as leverage, it’s easy to pull the man where he wants them to go.</p><p>It’s a dead end but not quite, and before Herbert can turn to call him out for his mistake, Dan has the whip in his hands. With a sharp flick and twirl of the wrist the leather wraps around a beam up above, his free arm snapping around the reanimator’s waist before they vault over the wall, the smaller man’s face tucked against the crook of his neck.</p><p>It’s a nice feeling that Dan is forced to ignore as he let’s the man go, pulls his whip back onto his hip and they keep sprinting hand in hand. It could be their running but it didn’t fail Dan’s notice that his small counterpart looked particularly more flustered than he had a moment ago. </p>
<hr/><p>They’d been running for a better part of the day, Dan swore if he took a sip from his canteen he’d down it all in one go so he avoided it. Instead pulling the smaller man back into an alley before thrusting the bottle into the scientist's hands. Herbert quirked a brow but accepted the canteen with a hint of gratitude. Dan found himself turning away from the man, unable to watch how his plump lips drank from the bottle.</p><p>“I don’t think they’re around following us anymore. At least on foot,” Dan sighed, peaking around the corner, relieved there was no one adorned in red and black trying to detain them. Well, more accurately kidnap Herbert and kill him. Hill and his followers didn’t care if he died, Herbert was the one with the elixir of life.</p><p>Herbert handed back the canteen with effort, and Dan as exhausted as he was felt a twang of something in his chest at the sight of the man’s arm shaking in fatigue. For a man who prided himself on staying awake and working through the body's needs, he wasn’t looking the hottest, even if he did look painfully attractive wrung out.</p><p>Dan took a quick swig of the drink, banishing the fact that his lips were just over the spot Herbert’s had been before securing the bottle back on his other hip.</p><p>“There’s a ferry nearby, it’ll get us to a different port, there we can get a room and then hopefully by the next morning plane or train tickets out of here,” the taller man instinctually grasped the man’s hand again, feeling explicably warm when the man’s fingers curled back into his grip. If anyone they passed wondered why the two of them were holding hands and looked utterly disheveled, no one had the heart to stop them. Not even the vendor giving them their tickets gave them a second glance.</p><p>Being so late with the moon rising, they were alone as the boat ran across the water. As serene as it was, Dan’s second wind crashed over him like a tidal wave, so as Herbert collapsed onto the nearest bench, resting his legs, Dan stayed standing, leaning against the railing and looking out over the water.</p><p>His hands held onto the sanded wood with fervor, knuckles popping and a watchful eye scanning the shore line. He had a gun in his belt, he hadn’t used it yet but was worried he’d have to soon. Dan's hand was itching to run over it’s metal, feel it against his skin to let him know he’ll be ready if they tried to strike. Rolling his neck to relieve himself of the strain, the archeologist popped his back and turned his gaze back to the scientist.</p><p>The man’s hair was the most tousled he’d seen, his glasses were in his hands, lenses being cleaned with his cuffs. His bare face riddled with oddly endearing bags and concentrated lines. The rest of him was still, not even his foot was tapping, and his full lips were parted by a fraction of an inch. </p><p>The moonlight adorned him in a beam, painting the hollows of his cheeks and making his hazel eyes reflect the water he was staring out at. His visage was ethereal. Dan had been quickly enamoured, but he was absolutely helpless to the man’s pale face in the moonlight.</p><p>It could be because he was sleep deprived, but his lips were painfully loose, “You know you’re absolutely stunning,”</p><p>Herbert looks to him at that, his glasses still folded in his hands. Surprise written on his face. His cheeks are soon dusted with specks of rose, and Dan is forced to look back out at the water as not to fall into the man’s gaze and lose himself forever. There’s a soft cracking as the man unfolds his glasses and places them back on, the floor groaning under his weight as the shorter man approaches. Settling close enough to his side that their arms brush. </p><p>“I can’t say you’re not something pleasing to look at yourself,” the smaller man’s voice is undeniably soft, his tone and movement’s awkward yet he is only gravitating closer which Dan takes as a good sign.</p><p>“I’m sorry if I was too forward,” Dan apologizes, keeping his head tucked to the side. His breath hitching as the scientist reaches up to cup his face and turn it back towards him, starting into his eyes while holding the stars within them.</p><p>“After our week I don’t think there’s any other way to be,” their leaning into each other's space, head’s tilting, and the boat's horn sounds causing them to pull away.</p><p>“We better get going,” Dan swallows, taking back the man’s hand and leading them away. The near meeting of their lips anything but forgotten as they hurried to find a motel that would take them for the night. </p><p>This time Herbert ordered the room, Dan was keeping watch, his fingers twitching at his sides, eyes boring into the surrounding area. They should be safe, he hoped they were, but even he missed things. There was no way of knowing if they were followed.</p><p>Herbert accepted the key, gesturing for Dan to follow as they made it to their room. It took the both of them to turn the key in the lock on the door, their nerves alight making the task impossible for one of them on their own. </p><p>They didn’t even get to look at the room before their backs were slamming against the door to prop it shut. A collective sigh of relief filtered through the air, and Dan’s legs gave out under his weight leaving Herbert the only one standing.</p><p>“There’s only one bed,” Dan murmured, jaw stretching in a yawn before his head fell back against the door.</p><p>“Considering you just called me stunning I didn’t think that would be a problem,” Herbert returns, this time offering his own hand for the man to take. Dan accepts it gratefully, moving with the reanimator until they are on the bed coiled together. It’s a little uncomfortable with all Dan’s gear but they're too exhausted to care.</p><p>“It’s the farthest thing from,”</p><p>Herbert pillows his head on Dan's chest, huffing out a pleased breath as the archeologist removed his glasses and set them on the nightstand before tangling his fingers into his nape and tucking him further against his skin.</p><p>One of them should stay awake and look out for Hill and his men, Dan had planned to let Herbert get some rest but sleep stole him too.</p>
<hr/><p>They’re woken up by the door being thrown off its hinges, the clatter sends them toppling off the side of the bed, Herbert barely managing to snatch his glasses off the table and put them on. It’s the perfect way of capturing them, and Hill and his men succeed without much struggle.</p><p>Both the archeologist and scientist are bested by chloroform rags being shoved over their mouths. In a matter of minutes their unconscious forms are being transported away. Hill watches the scene terselry, a little surprised at the development when it came to the two of them. Maybe he could put the stemming romance to good use.</p>
<hr/><p>Both bodies are left on the floor to wake, surrounded by a squad of men all under Hill’s command. They know what to do when the two of them wake, and they would be soon. The dosage had been low, enough so that they estimated in the next fifteen minutes they’d be able to move if not entirely fluidly.</p><p>The good doctor wakes first, jolting for a second in search of the man sprawled out beside him. Once he realizes the other man is at his side, his hands move for his belt and satchel only to come up short.</p><p>They’d taken it all, even his gun, there was no way of him escaping. Neither would be, not while they still had what was of use. Herbert woke soon after at the insistent shaking of his shoulder. Dan used as much strength as he could muster to wake the shorter man, unaware he was just digging his grave quicker.</p><p>They began once Herbert was fully lucid. A man holding back each of the men’s arms, restraining them as Hill stepped in, staring down the mad scientist and waving his hand before the snarky man could say anything in turn.</p><p>With the signal sent, a man near the back wall stepped forward, unsheathing a machete from the sheath on his belt before approaching the archeologist.</p><p>“No!” Herbert shouted, as the archeologist nearly pulled his arm from his socket trying to pull away from the blade being swung across his chest, digging inches in before the men let his body drop to the ground in a steadily building puddle of blood.</p><p>“Maybe you can save him Mr. West,” Hill suggests, admonishing him before waving off the guards so they let the scientist go before retreating. He didn’t need to see this part, god, he wanted to, but there were also mind games to play, so he couldn’t very well watch in person. It was a good thing they had cameras, the footage later would be lovely.</p><p>This was it. What the world had been waiting for.</p>
<hr/><p>The wound in Dan’s chest is gaping, blood muddling the slash across his chest keeping him tethered to the floor. It burns with a vengeance, sin written in the strike that slowly and meticulously hangs his guilt and sorrow. Making it writhe and fester, staining him worse than the rancid crimson gushing out of him. Onto the floor, onto his skin, onto Herbert’s hands as he applies pressure. The shorter man is saying something, something that his dazed mind trickles out into static crying.</p><p>It is good that there is still pain, it means he hasn’t fallen into shock. If he had he’d likely be dead already, but the lack of real sound entering his ears isn’t a good sign. A warning that he’ll likely succumb to that lovely painless shock soon. His body would go limp, any pain, physical or otherwise would fade away, and he’d be without Herbert, without the detested company of these bastards who’d done this and would potentially do the same to Herbert after the brilliant man finally managed to give them what they wanted.</p><p>Dan didn’t know what would be worse, dying amongst these horrid men or Herbert feasibly being executed after finally completing his life’s work only for it to be stolen and his name to be forgotten. It would be sacrilege for such a brilliant mind to go unknown and unheard, especially after he cured the incurable. </p><p>Tears fell off his face, dropping quicker than shots fired in war. His vision blurred and the stringy yet still beautiful visage looking down at him stole some lingering pain. Unintentionally bringing him closer to shock, to that tepid end. Blood bubbles up between his teeth as he makes to apologize, needing to.</p><p>This whole time he’d been trying to save Herbert and the reagent, and he’d failed. Badly enough that it’d end with both their deaths, and most likely torture for the short scientist he’d fallen in love with.</p><p>He’d lost enough blood already to taper down any rising anger at the inevitability of Herbert getting hurt, so much blood it slid down the sides of his lips as he managed to gurgle.</p><p>“I’m sorry,”</p><p>The tears that drip off Herbert’s face onto his own Dan wearily believes is sweat as his limbs go numb, shock winning the war and pulling him under until his heart slows and stutters at the lack of blood pumping through it’s valves and he dies.</p><p>Herbert knows death, knows it better than he knows anything else, even himself. Death to him held little emotion, the most pressing deaths he’d experienced being the death of his family in their burning house, and the death of his mentor. </p><p>The first one brought the overwhelming surge of freedom, untethered by blood. It was invigorating if not a little morbid. The second had been filled with anticipation, it’d been upsetting to lose his friend but the loss wasn’t as pressing as the result of the reagent running through his once dead veins only to end with disappointment and anger at the police confrontation and Gruber’s eyes popping out of his head. </p><p>But Dan’s? The man who’d protected him, fought these cruel bastards, used his dying breath to apologize. The man he’d started to love. It ravaged him. It tore at his normally unfeeling heart, digging in with claws that made him bleed in the same way Dan’s wounds made him die.</p><p>He cried and wailed as the man’s chest stopped beating under his firm hands, pressing down hard enough to exhaust him and make his biceps tremble. The blood on hands sting, boring through his skin with the same acidity as acid in a lab.</p><p>The guards around them snicker, and no matter how much red clouded his vision he couldn’t bring himself to take his hands away from Dan’s corpse to snap their necks. </p><p>“I need a transfusion kit now!” His shout is loud enough to make them jump, for a moment he’s not sure they’ll comply, but as his bloodied hands pull the reagent from his pocket one of them snaps into gear rushing to get what he asked for. Herbert’s hand’s shake worse than they had when he’d been experiencing withdrawal, but by some miracle he managed to fill the syringe, six cc’s, and manages to roll back his sleeves.</p><p>He doesn’t know if they are a match, it’s a chance he doesn’t want to take but he must. The man returns, handing the materials over, Herbert bruises his inner arm by slamming the needle into a vein without any care for the pain that follows. His tie he’d wrapped instinctually around his arm sometime during this process, he’s not entirely sure when. Herbert nearly grows like an untrained mutt when the man takes some initiative in doing the same for Dan, he even helps insert the needle, because it’s obvious it shouldn’t be Herbert who does it.</p><p>What the mad scientist does though is slam the reagent filled syringe into Dan’s blackhole of a heart and grounds his teeth together in the hopes that it will do something. The seconds feel like hours as his blood flows back into Dan’s unmoving body, and Herbert counts every single second willing for something to happen. He doesn’t reach twenty because Dan’s eyes open at sixteen. Blearily not all at once. </p><p>Not in the striking match way most other subjects had, but slowly as if he were waking from a rather deep sleep. The man who had fetched the equipment startled back, pushing himself far away, terrified that Dan was like the rest of the cadavers Herbert had failed to conjure back to life.</p><p>And maybe he would be, either way Herbert wouldn’t care. It’d be amazing if it truly worked but even he knew they were outnumbered for now and they might not even let Dan live very long if he was himself when he came back. They still needed him to make more reagent so they couldn’t kill him right away, but Dan. They could take him away again.</p><p>That or the man’s undead hand could wrap around his throat and bring him to his end as well. It’d be anticlimactic but poetic and fitting in it’s own right. Killed by the cadaver of the man he loved and tried to bring back. In some way Frankenstein had loved his monster.</p><p>“Danny?” Herbert used the arm not currently pumping blood to push back the man’s sweaty bangs as Dan continued to slowly blink, eyes hazy but clearing as he looked up at him. His pupils were dilated, haunted, but not filled with the panicked aggression he’d seen in other subjects.</p><p>“Herbert?” the archaeologist croons, his voice botched and guttural but there is a relieved happiness. Endearment in his hum as he stares at him with hardly focused eyes. Filled with relief the scientist cackles cupping the man’s face reverently. </p><p>
  <em> It worked. </em>
</p><p>The lingering men in the room startle, not knowing what to do or even say. Maybe they should kill him outright but they don’t, they stare in terror and in disbelief. They’d known what Herbert had been set out to do and yet seeing that he’d actually managed to accomplish it was another thing entirely.</p><p>“You’re alright,” Herbert assures, smiling broadly for a second before he realizes the wound on the man’s chest is still expelling blood, his blood as well.</p><p>“We need a medic!” and surprisingly, <em>thankfully</em>, they comply. Whether or not it’s because they now know Herbert will do anything for Dan meaning he is leverage for more reagent, or they too want to see if Dan’s wakefulness and reanimation is permanent, it’s something to worry about later.</p><p>A rush of footfalls approach and all too suddenly there are guns pointed at their heads and Dan’s being sewed up with no medication. It simmers and Herbert can’t help him because he’s being restrained, the needle ripped from his arm making him grit his teeth and Dan trying to launch himself forward, with no care for his safety even after beating death.</p><p>“Stop-” Dan tries to scream, howling when the suture misses targets and pokes into his raw cut flesh. In agony the two fight to reach each other to no avail. Dan is dragged away thrashing, the pull ripping his own transfusion needle out of his arm for another jet of blood to gush onto the ground.</p><p>“Dan!”</p><p>“Herbert!”</p>
<hr/><p>The putrid scent of iron stuck to the scientist as he was being escorted away, Dan had been escorted down the adjacent hall, something that did not sit well in his gut. How was he supposed to see the full results of the reagent without Dan being there? Well, he said that as his excuse, it was true in some way but it wasn’t the main reason he wanted Dan.</p><p>“Doctor West, you’ve outdone yourself,” The compliment isn’t a real compliment, especially not from Hill as he towers over Herbert where he's tied to a chair. The scientist looks up disdainfully at the plagiarist, hazel eyes gleaming with unbridled rage.</p><p>“Don’t worry I’m looking over Doctor Cain’s recovery myself,” another thing that makes Herbert worry more, “He’s very dependent on you. Who’d have thought the insufferable Herbert West would cross paths with the swarthy less than ordinary archeologist and fall in love? I thought a man of your standing was above all that,”</p><p>“I doubt you could give an accurate recording of his recovery,” Herbert snides, turning up his nose, not trying to refute the other man’s remarks about Dan and his relationship when he was right.</p><p>He hadn’t expected to fall in love, hadn’t even thought such a thing was possible until he grew closer to the fluffy haired whip wielding doctor. From the near kiss in the moonlight and the shared night in the hotel room, the constant closeness and Dan’s constant pledge to uphold his safety. It couldn’t have gone any other way.</p><p>Herbert could defy gods and death itself but he couldn’t run from a black hole.</p><p>The retort has Hill’s mouth furling into a snarl before he turned away, peering back over his shoulder only for a second, chuckling, “He’ll pay for your insolence.”</p><p>“No!” Herbert tries to pry himself from his bonds, but Hill is already gone, laughing to his hearty screams.</p>
<hr/><p>The torture isn’t anything that can kill him, but it isn’t pleasent. Not as they bury his head in chilled water and wait till the bubbles die down before they pull him back up again to take a breath. The intervals get shorter before they get longer, repeating again and again to the point he can’t remember what he’s counting at anymore. His torso flares at the forced movement.  </p><p>They’d stitched him up and brought him back together again yet Dan is still fearful the wounds were being aggravated enough to lead to more damage or possibly infection. Hill’s presence only made it worse. </p><p>He wanted Herbert. Coming back to life was disorienting. At first Dan believed it might be the torture that left him feeling listless but in all honesty he knew it was the lack of Herbert. </p><p>Dying had left his heart panging, filling him with a loneliness Dan could tell wouldn’t be remedied unless it was by the man he loved, and had brought him back to life. But Herbert wasn’t here, not willingly of course, Dan knew Herbert wanted to be with him here now too. He knew it from within, he knew it because Herbert struggled for him in the same way he defended his reagent, and if that wasn’t love he didn’t know what was. </p><p>“You’ve been a pain to many of mine and other’s excursions,” Hill remarks before Dan’s head is forced back beneath the surface for another round of uncounted seconds.</p><p>“You spent your life looking for treasure, it’s ironic that the most important one you’ve found happened to be a man trying to conquer death.” the men dunking him waited for Hill to finish speaking, “But it would seem you didn’t just find Doctor West, you saved him, and then you fell in love. How quaint,” Dan’s head was pushed back under the surface yet again and the bubbles withered, the men just about to pull Dan up again but Hill’s hand stopped them.</p><p>They didn’t pull him up until he was still. When he breached the surface once again Dan spit up the water ravaging his lungs, pulling at his chest, his stitches creaking in anger. </p><p>Carl yanked the archeologist's head up by his wet chin, nails leaving indents in the doctor’s skin, “The second I get what I want from him, I’ll let you watch his death. And then I’ll keep you to show the world what the reagent can really do. Death will be your second skin doctor Cain.”</p><p>Dan’s engulfed by the water again before he can process how sullen a fate that really is.</p>
<hr/><p>Herbert doesn’t know how he does it but he escapes his bindings with his wrist is scraped raw. That doesn’t matter, nor does the life of the guard he takes so he can access his gun, and the lives he takes then after with that gun. His reagent won’t be stolen and he has no intention of leaving Dan here either. Another shot, another guard dead, another man in the way of Dan gone. He takes another man’s gun fearing the one he’s been utilizing is running low on ammo. That won’t do.</p><p>Men rush into the hall and Herbert doesn’t stop firing, not as he runs throughout rooms looking for Dan. Hunting Dan, because that is where Hill will be. That is where and when he can reap the bastard's soul for daring to take his way of life and the one he decidedly wanted to spend it with. </p><p>It takes little time to find them, he kills the men holding Dan first, being slammed to the ground seconds later by Hill. The older man is more limber than one could imagine, his size is enough to pin Herbert to the ground. </p><p>Dan lay motionless on the hardwood, eyes open wearily as water trickled from his lips, washing away some of the blood that fell there earlier. He can’t feel any more flakes between his teeth either. It is a small thing to be grateful for as his body tries and subsequently fails to pick itself off the ground.</p><p>He needs to help Herbert. Luckily it seems the little devil's manic energy was keeping him going. As the two tousled Dan is clearly reminded of his childhood cat Rufus who’d tackle the pillows it’d push off the couch and just about anything else that crossed its path. Eyes wild and nails gouging, teeth barred in fierce hisses, striking again and again without delay or remorse. The image breaks when Herbert’s bloodied and severely bruised arm juts out and latches onto a worker’s shovel.</p><p>His hand is near close to the end as he swings it and manages to smack Hill into unconsciousness, Herbert rolls them over quickly, taking the handle into both hands before he brings it down into the hollow of the bastard's throat. He does it again and again and Dan watches raptly.</p><p>Dan had killed and he couldn’t be shocked that Herbert partook in the action as well. They did what they could to survive and still there was more to this death, satisfaction as Herbert’s mangled arms severed the pompous plagiarist thief’s head.</p><p>The shorter man’s hazel eyes twinkle with vile satisfaction and Dan doesn’t understand how Herbert’s beauty continues to surprise him. It does, every second of everyday spent together, whether he be illuminated by the moonlight or soaked in blood, the man remains untainted, even with each debilitatingly moral less act.</p><p>The scientist scurries away from the body once the act is done, heaving as exertion presses at his bones but it doesn’t stop his pursuit or the way he decidedly maneuvers Dan into an embrace. A weak chuckle falls out of Dan’s mouth at the action, Herbert jumping into his arms seemingly a rarity, one he’d bask in and enjoy by leaning his mottled chest against the man’s own and tucking his face into the crook of his neck.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Dan whispers into the man’s alabaster skin. Wishing they were anywhere else, like the motel room they were kidnapped from. He wanted to be in bed again, whispering decelerations of love into the man’s skin and sleep until he felt nothing resembling pain any longer.</p><p>The loneliness brought to him upon his death was being slowly abated by their contact. It didn’t seem to be enough, maybe it’d never be, Dan was sure to find out, but he couldn’t do that here.</p><p>“Me?” Herbert returned incredulously, as if he wasn’t aware he was in way broken as well, “Are you alright?” the man urged, sweeping the man’s sopping hair back and tangling his fingers in the strands, helping tether them together.</p><p>“Mhm,” it's a less than enthusiastic answer, it’s also a lie but it's for Herbert’s benefit and that makes it alright. </p><p>“They drowned you,” Herbert’s burying his nose into Dan’s temple, only then does Dan feel him trembling, the source not only from his anger and fright but also the adrenaline fleeting from his smaller form. The archaeologist nods, his arm running over each nob of the man’s spine placatingly. Inhaling the green apple and rubbing alcohol scent that lived in the other man, Dan pressed a chaste kiss to the man’s pulse point.</p><p>“I want to go home,” he hadn’t been home in a long time, and Herbert having no home to speak of could join him. They’d be safe in <em> his </em> space, and Herbert would be coiled in <em> his </em> blankets and <em> his </em>bed. It didn’t seem Herbert got the memo of that because he recoiled in the slightest, Dan unable to tuck back into his throat as the man bunched in on himself like a child.</p><p>“I want you to come with me,” Dan murmured, clearing things up for the surprisingly smart idiot, pleadingly looking into the smaller man’s eyes, imploring him to say yes, which Herbert does. Nodding dumbly as if he hadn’t expected it. </p><p>A grin plastered itself onto the brunet’s face, a similar yet far more bashful one spreading on the bespectacled man’s as well. Dan tugged the man closer once again now that he knew Herbert would sometime be soon be spread out on his mattress, cosy and safe in <em> their </em>home. Dan’s pointer finger continued to idly trace the other man’s spine, they realized no one was coming to get them since the building was distinctly lacking in footfalls so they took their time, no matter how pressing it was for them in their minds to get home, Dan needed to wait for the panging to recede to even get on his feet.</p><p>“You’re alright, it’s alright,” Herbert assured, helping the man down the hall, guiding him over fallen soldiers and trudging through the drying blood sticking to their boots. It’d be a long trek home, but they’d defeated death, they could do this together too.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Snap: allisonw1122<br/>Tumblr/twitter: webtrinsic1122<br/>Insta:Webtrinsic</p></blockquote></div></div>
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